Most commercial businesses, such as merchants, insurance agents, stock brokers, or attorneys, accept checks as a method of payment. Those businesses which are capable of capturing the check image and routing information can electronically communicate with banking systems to “clear” the check, establishing that the check is drawn on an account having sufficient funds. This electronic clearing provides a business advantage by reducing the time between check receipt and clearing.
Current electronic check clearing machines scan checks that are placed into them by a user, and return those checks to that user. These machines can communicate with the user to signify whether or not the check was successfully scanned.
Users of check clearing machines generally will include cashiers or other employees of the commercial businesses employing the machines. Unsupervised, unscrupulous employees can steal the physical check and deposit it at a bank or use it as a basis for forgery because the employees can take the check as it is output from the scanner. In such a case, the verified funds can be diverted from the commercial business.
For at least these reasons, improvements are desired.